Brian Mann (NCPR)

Imagine if your town needed to amend New York's state constitution every time it wanted to straighten a rural road or install a broadband internet line. That's exactly the situation for dozens of towns in the Adirondacks and the Catskills that are surrounded by state forest preserve.

But a deal hashed out by the legislature is expected to give communities more flexibility, allowing them to use small chunks of park land without years of delay and red tape.

Two bald eagles died in the North Country this spring after being poisoned with lead. That’s according to a wildlife rehabilitation group in the Lake George area. This comes at a time when there’s a fierce debate over sportsmen’s use of lead ammunition and lead fishing tackle.

"She didn't even survive overnight."

Trish Marki has been a wildlife rehabilitator with North Country Wild Care for more than a decade. She’s federally licensed to handle bald eagles. Last month, she got the call about a bird that looked sick in Washington County.

Rep. Elise Stefanik stormed her way to a second term last night. The Republican from Willsboro won the North Country’s congressional seat by more than 90,000 votes in unofficial returns. The Democrat and the Green in the race were both handed stinging defeats.

Jubilation in Glens Falls

It was a jubilant and confident night in a packed ballroom at the Queensbury Hotel as a beaming Elise Stefanik greeted volunteers and supporters after winning every single North Country county – often by landslide margins. Young volunteers chanted "Elise! Elise! Elise!"

New York’s inspector general released a scathing report late Monday, blasting the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. The report found widespread security lapses and breakdowns in oversight that led to last summer’s escape from Clinton Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in Dannemora, New York, located near the Canadian border.

Last summer at this time, there were tense checkpoints on back roads and highways across northern New York.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo will move to close more state correctional facilities. He made the announcement on Sunday while addressing a church congregation in Harlem.

"I'm going to go down in the history books as the governor who closed the most prisons in the history of the state of New York and I am proud of it," Cuomo told parishioners at Mt. Neboh Baptist Church. "I want to close more prisons with more alternatives to incarceration."

President Barack Obama announced yesterday that he plans to tighten gun control measures using his executive authority. That move drew mixed reviews here in New York, a state with some of the toughest gun regulations in the country.

Some activists said government officials were infringing on their right to own and carry firearms, but others said New York should go even further to restrict access to guns and ammunition.

Prisons around the state continue to face closer scrutiny following last summer's escape from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora. State and federal probes are already underway. But a growing number of lawmakers now say violence behind bars and the breakdown in security mean more oversight is needed.

Republican Elise Stefanik cruised to an easy victory to become the North Country’s next Congresswoman. She defeated Democrat Aaron Woolf 53-32 percent, with the Green Party candidate winning 11 percent of the vote.

At his campaign headquarters near his home in Elizabethtown Tuesday night, Woolf acknowledged some rough patches in his campaign.

Republicans pigeon-holed filmmaker Aaron Woolf from the beginning as a “Manhattan Millionaire,” a carpetbagger. But people at this folksy, Adirondack bar near his home don’t see that Aaron Woolf at all.

A new poll in New York's North Country's Congressional race finds Republican Elise Stefanik leading Democrat Aaron Woolf 46 to 33 percent. Green Party candidate Matt Funiciello is favored by 10 percent of those polled.

The poll was conducted independent of the candidates by WWNY-TV 7 News in Watertown and Siena College. It has a four point margin of error.

The poll also finds North Country voters deeply dissatisfied with their state and federal leaders, with more than 10 percent of voters saying they're unsure how to vote.

It's just over four months before the November election and Green Party candidate Matt Funiciello is making his first campaign stops around the 21st Congressional District.

Funiciello says he's running to win the North Country's House of Representative seat, hoping to follow in the footsteps of other maverick members of Congress.

A long-time business-owner and founder of the Rock Hill Bakehouse in Glens Falls, Funiciello says he hopes to peel away disgruntled voters who in the past might have backed Republican or Democratic candidates.

After entering the race as a complete unknown last year, Elise Stefanik won the Republican Party primary in New York's 21st Congressional District Tuesday night by a commanding margin over Matt Doheny.

Stefanik, a 29-year-old political analyst, overcame non-existent name recognition, opposition from some senior GOP leaders, and claims that she was a "carpetbagger" from outside the North Country district.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo led a group of lawmakers on a day-long visit to the Adirondack Park yesterday.

The Adirondack Winter Challenge is part of his administration's $60 million effort, launched last year, to boost upstate tourism. The event was also designed to build support in Albany for state-run tourism sites that cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars a year to operate.

The day’s big photo op comes with Andrew Cuomo climbing on a sleek snowmobile, surrounded by snowy woods under a brilliant blue sky.

North Country Rep. Bill Owens (D-Plattsburgh) announced Tuesday that he will not seek reelection in November -- surprising the political establishment and putting the seat for the 21st Congressional District up for grabs.

On Tuesday when you go to vote, you’ll find two issues on your ballot that deal with New York’s Adirondack Park.

Both involve small land swaps that have been in the works for years. But because they impact the park’s forest preserve, which is protected by the state constitution, they require a vote of the people to move forward. Although one of the land swaps enjoys wide support, the other has sparked controversy and a fierce debate among environmentalists.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo was in the Adirondack Park yesterday, where he joined some of the state's most powerful politicians and business leaders on a whitewater rafting trip down the Indian River.

Cuomo says his "Adirondack Challenge," held in the town of Indian Lake, is meant to draw attention and more visitors to destinations in Upstate New York.

"I want to expose this part of the state of New York," Cuomo said. "It is a magnificent part of the state, as you can see. Tourism is a big business for us, it's a big part of the economy and this has great potential."

Governor Andrew Cuomo traveled to the Adirondacks on Sunday, bringing with him most of his executive cabinet and dozens of downstate reporters. He made the trip to promote a new $50 million land purchase that will add tens of thousands of acres to the park's forest preserve.

Congressman Bill Owens (D-Plattsburgh) says he will repay more than $20,000 for a junket that he took last December to Taiwan. The trip was paid for by a university in Taiwan. But it was planned and organized by a New York lobbying firm, which is no longer allowed under House of Representatives ethics rules.

A new rule that took effect this year in New York state is designed to stop the illegal sale of black bear parts for use in Asian medicine and cooking. While the sale of parts is still allowed, hunters will now have to document that they were taken legally.

The tiny village of Keene, N.Y., in the Adirondack Mountains is part of a trade network that supplies Asian apothecaries and restaurants from New York City to Seoul, South Korea.